The global coronavirus caseload has topped 242.9 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.93 million and vaccinations soared to over 6.76 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and the total number number of vaccine doses administered stood at 242,918,979, 4,936,844 and 6,763,349,919, respectively.

COVID-19 re-infection
COVID-19 (Representational Picture)Flick/ Prachatai

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 45,380,032 and 735,169, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 34,143,236 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (21,711,843), the UK (8,730,715), Russia (8,041,581), Turkey (7,800,766), France (7,215,584), Iran (5,844,589), Argentina (5,278,910), Spain (4,997,732), Colombia (4,988,021), Italy (4,733,557), Indonesia (4,238,594), Germany (4,452,547) and Mexico (3,777,209), the CSSE figures showed.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (605,139), India (453,042), Mexico (285,953), Russia (224,369), Peru (200,003), Indonesia (143,153), the UK (139,742), Italy (131,763), Colombia (126,994), Iran (124,928), France (118,373) and Argentina (115,819).

Iran reports 11,064 new Covid cases; 5,844,589 in total

Iran's health ministry has reported 11,064 new Covid-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 5,844,589.

The pandemic also claimed 165 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 124,928, said the update by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

A total of 5,388,496 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 4,422 remain in intensive care units, according to the ministry.

By Friday, 50,373,488 Iranians have received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 28,291,777 of them have taken two jabs.

The report added that 34,551,206 tests have so far been carried out across the country.